Worldwide gross sales of semiconductor manufacturing gear surged 14% from US$56.62 billion in 2017 to an all-time excessive of US$64.5 billion in 2018, in response to SEMI.
For the second consecutive yr, Korea claimed the biggest marketplace for new semiconductor gear with US$17.71 billion in gross sales, mentioned SEMI. China turned the second largest gear marketplace for the primary time in 2018, with gross sales of US$13.11 billion, whereas Taiwan fell to the third place with gross sales of US$10.17 billion.
Annual spending charges elevated final yr for China, Japan, Rest of World (primarily Southeast Asia), Europe and North America, SEMI indicated. However, new gear markets in Taiwan and South Korea contracted. The 2018 gear market rankings for Japan, North America, Europe and ROW remained unchanged from 2017.
Sales for the worldwide wafer processing gear market section rose 15% in 2018, whereas different front-end section gross sales grew 9%, SEMI mentioned. Total take a look at gear gross sales surged 20% as meeting and packaging gross sales elevated 2%.
